Lisa Ireland

So I think what resonates for me in any book and has been since I've been right back to Anne Shirley is a female protagonist who is not a victim.

One of my absolute, probably my absolute favourite all-time book is Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders.

which follows the path of a young woman, Anna Frith, during the plague years in Great Britain.

She was in, the story's actually set, it's a really interesting story.

It's set in a real village that cordoned itself off during the plague years.

The plague was brought into this village on a bolt of cloth and

The villagers decided that rather than spread the disease any further, that they would lock themselves, essentially go into lockdown.

And many, many, many of them died.

But Anna, who lost her husband, not to plague, but in an accident at the beginning of the novel, and then lost her two children, she becomes...

quite unlikely heroine, really.

She's a young woman.

She's 18 years old.

And she's not particularly an educated woman, but she's an independent, clever woman who is not someone who's just prepared to sit on her hands and let other people suffer.

So is that a book that you reread?

Yes, I've read that.

Look, I'm not a huge rereader just because it's a time factor.

There are so many great books to read.

I'm not a huge rereader, but that book is one that I reread often.

Anne, of course, I keep going back to her.

And I also have reread, a couple of years ago, I reread To Kill a Mockingbird.